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British Transport Docks |
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RAILWAY BRITAIN |
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Railways
played a major role in the great period of Victorian port expansion.
Earlier
docks were difficult to adapt for railways, generally hemmed in by
populous
areas and only reached by laying rails through the street. Their small
size
meant that wagons had to be moved around them singly over turntables. It took
some time for dock owners to realise the changes that railways were
bringing
about. The new Clarence Dock, Liverpool opened in 1829, only a year
before the
Liverpool & Manchester Railway, had no railway nearer than the
L&MR’s
Wapping goods station 1 ½ miles away in the old south docks. The goods
station
itself relied on cartage to and from the quays until 1833 when rails
were laid
to the coal yard at King’s Dock, and through the streets to the timber
yards at
Brunswick Dock in 1835. It was 1855 before the first branch railway was
opened
to the expanding North Docks. The Hull & Selby Railway built a line
to Hull
docks from the outset in 1840, but the new Railway Dock of 1846 was too
small
for the largest steamers, while the Victoria Dock of 1850-2, which
could
accommodate them, at first lacked good rail connections. - Railway Executive - Hotels Executive - Docks & Inland Waterways Executive - Road Passenger Executive - Road Haulage Executive - In 1962 the British Transport Commission is abolished and its activities separated off into various public corporations. - Railway Executive > British Railways Board - Hotels Executive > British Transport Hotels - Docks & Inland Waterways Executive is split - Docks > British Transport Docks Board - Inland Waterways > British Waterways Board - Road Passenger Executive > Transport Holding Company - Road Haulage Executive > - The British
Transport Docks Board, which had been profitable and self-financing for
many
years, had invested heavily in order to modernise its port facilities.
With the
Government determined to pass its assets to the private sector, it was
renamed However some port and
docks were retained in British Rail as part of its Railway Shipping
Services. BR's
Shipping and International Services Division was established in 1968
and became
fully operational in August the following year. Its assets embraced the
considerable fleet of BR vessels and harbours. Shortly afterwards the
Shipping
Division joined a consortium of shipping companies owned by the French
Railways, the Belgian Marine and the Dutch Zeeland Steamship Company,
to be
marketed as Sealink. In 1979 it became a separate but wholly-owned
subsidiary
of the BRB, and one of the biggest shipping companies in the world, as
Sealink UK Ltd. In 1984 Sealink was
privatised and sold to British Ferries, a subsidiary of Sea
Containers Ltd, an international seafreight company whose owner and
President,
James Sherwood, had recently purchased five of the former British
Transport Hotels. This sale
took place at a time when one large cross-channel ferry was valued at
approximately £20 million. It was a bargain for Sea Containers who took
over 37
ships of various sizes, 10 harbours and 9,390 staff of whom 2,529 were
salaried. In 1991 Sea
Containers Ltd decided to sell most of their Sealink
British Ferries operations to Stena Line.
However Sea Containers Ltd retained the Summary of former Railway Owned Ports & Harbours: London & South East:Tilbury Riverside Pier (now owned by the Port of London Authority) Gravesend Town Pier (now owned by the Port of London Authority) Folkestone Harbour (now owned by Roger De Hann's Folkestone Properties Ltd) Newhaven Harbour (now owned by LD Transmanche Ferries) Portsmouth Station Pier (Wightlink Ferries) Ryde Pier Head (Wightlink Ferries) Lymington Pier (Wightlink Ferries) Southampton Docks (now owned by Associated British Ports) Weymouth Harbour (now owned by Weymouth & Portland Borough Council) South West: Teignmouth (now owned by Associated British Ports) Plymouth Millbay Docks (now owned by Associated British Ports) Wales: Newport (now owned by Associated British Ports) Cardiff (now owned by Associated British Ports) Barry (now owned by Associated British Ports) Port Talbot (now owned by Associated British Ports) Swansea (now owned by Associated British Ports) Fishguard Harbour (now owned by Stena Line) Holyhead (now owned by Stena Line) North West: Garston (now owned by Associated British Ports) Fleetwood (now owned by Associated British Ports) Heysham (now owned by the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company - part of Peel Holdings plc) Barrow (now owned by Associated British Ports) Lake Windermere Piers (now owned by Windermere Lake Cruises) Silloth (now owned by Associated British Ports) Scotland: Stranraer Harbour (now owned by Stena Line) Ayr (now owned by Associated British Ports) Troon (now owned by Associated British Ports) Clyde Piers (now owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd) Grangemouth (now owned by Forth Ports) East Coast: Hull (now owned by Associated British Ports) Goole (now owned by Associated British Ports) Grimsby & Immingham (now owned by Associated British Ports) Kings Lynn (now owned by Associated British Ports) Lowestoft (now owned by Associated British Ports) Ipswich (now owned by Associated British Ports) Harwich Parkeston Quay (now owned by Harwich International Port - part of Hutchison Port Holdings) Websites: Associated British Ports http://www.abports.co.uk Stena Line http://www.stenaline.co.uk Port of London Authority (PLA) http://www.portoflondon.co.uk Folkestone Harbour http://www.folkestoneharbour.com/ LD Transmanche Ferries http://www.transmancheferries.com/ Wightlink Ferries http://www.wightlink.co.uk Windermere Lake Cruises http://www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk/ Weymouth & Portland Borough Council http://www.weymouth.gov.uk/Transport/Harbour/home.asp?svid=167 Peel Holdings plc http://www.peel.co.uk Caledonian MacBrayne http://www.calmac.co.uk Forth Ports plc http://www.forthports.co.uk Harwich International Port http://www.harwich.co.uk/ Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) http://www.hph.com.hk/
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